-6. This scale has a magnification of a
million. The electron microscope
therefore can no longer give us clear images, for at most it can magnify
100,000 times. A more schematic image is therefore unavoidable, that is,
a diagram rather than a photographic enlargement. Yet we know that there
would still be living creatures. We show the infantile paralysis virus
(1), already visible in -5, and one of hoof
and mouth disease (2). The
latter is about the smallest now known. Apart from the viruses shown
there exist several with shapes sharply different from these wholly or
nearly spherical forms. The sinusoid (3) shown is of an ultraviolet ray.
The dots in the upper left quadrant indicate molecules of the air. The
inset has the flagellum composed of three strands as already shown in
-5.
The height of the salt crystal on this scale would be 500 meters.